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CHAPTER-IV

“TO HELP GOOD PEOPLE TO A HAPPY END:”

THE GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN

But there is the little problem of subsistence

Supplies are scarce and human beings base
Who would not like a peaceable existence?
But this world is not that kind of place

- Bertolt Brecht, ‘The Three Penny Opera’

The Good person of Szechwan is a parable play. The play is set in China.

‘Love is the Goods’, was the title of the play which Brecht was planning to write about

1930 and he recalled this play when he began working on The Good Person of

Szechwan. Brecht also adopted the play by ‘Tai Yang wakes up’ which was written

as a modern corrective to the sentimental chinoiscrie of Klabund’s version, and which

Piscator staged in 1932 in a simple didactic production that impressed him. This play

is an important marker in Brecht’s career as a playwright. This play stands out from

his more didactic and politically committed works, by being conceived as parables - a

description not previously used for his plays and having ethical problems as their main

concern.

Again by writing this play, he is not content with social satire with trenchant

observation. For this reason he took a lot of time in completing the play. In the

beginning he thought of writing the play about prostitution and deprivation in Berlin.

He could not come to terms with history. Finally he could complete the play in 1941
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with the oriental background. In this play he sets up an exploratory experiment to

establish what the relationship between food and morality, or more precisely money

and goodness, really is :

On my wall hangs a Japanese Carving

The Mask of an evil demon, decorated with gold lacquer
Sympathetically I observe The Swollen Vein of the Forehead,
indicating
What a strain it is to be evil. 1

The Good Person of Szechwan is concerned mainly with possibility of

goodness in the contemporary world. The play is based on Po-chi-Yis’s poem:

That so many of the poor should suffer from cold,

What can we do to prevent?
To bring warmth to a single body is not much use,
I wish I had a big rug ten thousand feet long
Which at one time could cover up every inch of the city.

Brecht has modified the poem

The Governor, when I asked what would suffice

To help the numb with cold in our city
Replied: A rug ten thousand feet long
Simply to cover all the slums at one time2

Brecht’s thinking is sharpened by Oriental Literature, predominantly Chinese.

Brecht in the play ‘The Good Person of Szechwan’, reveals ‘The human

comedy’ through the character of Shen Teh, He lays bare the contradiction between the

God’s world and human’s world. The dilemma of Shen Teh is, how to remain good in

spite of hostile circumstances. The ideals are ordained by the Gods to Shen Teh. The
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Gods discover Shen Teh after long search. Though Shen Teh is a prostitute, the Gods

take shelter in her house and decide to help her. Their help to Shen Teh gives them a

satisfaction that there is at least one good person in the world. The irony is that they

could not find any other person except Shen Teh till the end of the play.

Shen Teh is liked by all, when she is generous. This helping disposition leads

her to the brink of ruin. In order to save herself from the ruin, she disguises herself as

Shui Ta. As Shui Ta she becomes very aggressive and tries to retrieve the business of

Shen Teh. In this process Shui Ta dominates the happenings and Shen Teh is not to be

seen on the stage for a long time. So people in Szechwan gets the doubt over Shui

Ta’s attitude and draws him to the court, alleging that he murdered Shen Teh. Once

again the Gods appear as the Judges. But they could not find a proper solution for

Shen Teh’s dilemma and disappear by telling Shen Teh to be good. The human

comedy of how to be good, in spite of difficulties remains unsolved and the problem is

posed to the audience.

The play opens with a prologue. Three Gods in search of a good person enter

the city of Szechwan. The water seller, Wang, helps the Gods to find a shelter to the

Gods in the house of Shen Teh, a prostitute. The Gods find goodness in Shen Teh.

She complains to the Gods that she finds it difficult to follow up their commandments

as she is not financially sound. In order to give her a fillip, the Gods give her some

money and leave the place by giving a piece of advice that she should remain good.
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Shen Teh purchases a tobacco shop with the money given by the Gods. Soon,

she is surrounded by a family of eight, who take advantage of her goodness. She finds

to her horror that at night there is no room for her to sleep. So she disguises herself as

Shui Ta and politely asks the family of eight to leave the premises, she hands them

over to the police, when they refused to leave the place.

She Teh finds in the park a young man, Yang Sun, who is about to hang

himself. She saves him and finds out that he is an unemployed pilot who is unable to

raise five hundred dollars to get him pilot’s job in Peking. In the conversation that

ensues between the two, Shen Teh experiences the joy of man-woman relationships

unclouded by material interests. She falls in love with Yang Sun and promises to help

him to get a pilot job in Peking.

After sometime, Yang Sun asks Shen Teh that he needs five hundred dollars to

give it to the director of an air field in Peking. He tells her that he has no intention of

marrying her, but still Shen Teh loves him. The wedding between Shen Teh and Sun

will not take place. Because Shen Teh wants to give the money to the old couple and

she insists that Shui Ta should come to the wedding place.

Shen Teh comes to know that she is pregnant. Again her yard is filled with the

people. She once again disguises herself as Shui Ta and starts running factory. Shen

Teh can not be sighted by the people for a long time. This leads to a suspicion that

Shui Ta might have caused some harm to Shen Teh. Shui Ta is charged with the

murder of Shen Teh.

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Shui Ta is produced in the court. He unmasks himself as Shen Teh. She

explains to the Gods the circumstances that forced her to disguise herself as Shui Ta

and requests them to offer a solution so that she can survive without the mask.

But the Gods failed to give any solution to her problems and they leave the

place. They once again tell her that she should remain good. Inspite of difficulties.

The play comes to close as Brecht refers this dilemma to the audience in the theatre.

II

The treatment of the Gods by Brecht in this play is highly satirical. The

reference to Gods also occurs in the earlier series of pamphlets called ‘Experiments’ as

well as in some of his poems. For example in one of his poems, ‘Hymn to God’

Brecht expresses his opinion.

You let the poor stay poor for year after year,
Feeling that their desires were sweeter than your paradise
Too bad they died before you had brought them light,
But they died in bliss all the same and rotted at once.
Many of us say you are not and a good thing to,
But how could that thing not be which can play such trick
If so much lives by you and could not die without you
Tell me how for does it matter that you don’t exist?3

The three Gods condescend to the level of human beings. The crisis in the

human society is reflected in the world of Gods. They have been looking for, without

success, a good person. They have received complaints that no one can stay on earth

and remain good. Wang, the water seller says:

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They say that the heavens are deeply disturbed by the many
complaints that have going up. (3) (4)

There is lot of irony and satire in the above lines. As a Marxist Brecht is

suggesting that how people are trying to look up instead of searching for the solution

on the earth. As a materialist, he is satirising the concept of heaven by telling that how

even the ‘the heaven’ the abode of the Gods are disturbed by the human complaints.

The Gods identity is being questioned and threatened. They desire to testify to

the world that goodness still exists and good persons can be traced on the earth. They

want that people should retrieve faith on them.

The prologue in the play illustrates the ‘human comedy’ of the Gods. Wang,

the water seller, is awaiting the arrival of the Gods in the capital of Szechwan

province. His problem is identification of the Gods. He is very anxious to greet the

Gods first. Because Wang so far has not seen the Gods literally. He has only heard of

the Gods from different sources. So naturally he has become anxious. If he delays in

meeting the Gods, the Gods will be surrounded by the important people of the city.

Brecht satirically says that the Gods are always on the side of the rich and the

powerful.

Wang has the problem of identification of the Gods. He studies the people

passing by him. He says:

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It cannot be the men . . . They are coming away from work. Their
shoulders are bent by the burdens they have to carry. That fellow
is no good either, he has inky fingers. At most he may be some
kind of clerk in cement works. 1 would not take those gentlemen
two gentlemen walk past for gods even; they have the brutal faces
of men who beat people, and the Gods find that unnecessary. But
look at these three. They seem very different. They are well
nourished, how no evidence of employment and have dust on their
shoes, so they must have traveled far. It is them. Yours to
command Illustrious Ones! (3)

The above lines of Wang are fraught with irony and satire. Brecht exposes the

contradiction between the world of the Gods and the world of human beings. The

physical appearance of the Gods are contrasted with the appearance of proletarian

section of the society. The physiognamy of the proletriat is brutal when compared to

the Gods. The Gods are always well-nourished and always immaculate. They can be

immaculate because they do not do any physical work. So, to Wang they appear not to

have any evidence of employment. They may symbolise the capitalists.

The Gods are in search of a good person and they traveled to many other places

before coming to Szechwan. They wanted to take rest for the night and seek the help

of Wang to find a place. But, the Gods have been unable to get any proper place

because no one has been willing to take them in at night. Brecht treats the Gods as an

object of ridicule and shows how they have become irrelevant and ineffectual in the

modern world. It is ironical that Wang does not want to have any enmity with

powerful people in Szechwan, even though the Gods are said to be all powerful. When

the First God suggests that he can try out first house, Wang says :
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I only fear that, I may attract the enmity of the powerful, if 1 give
one of them preference4

It is also ironical that people in Szechwan who are aware of the fact that the

Gods have come to their doorsteps are not willing to give shelter to them. This is an

unexpected and irreconcilable situation to the Gods. The Second God says :

Circumstances in Shun, circumstances in Kwan, and now

circumstances in Szechwan. There are on god-fearing people left;
that is naked truth which you will not recognise. Our missions is
hopeless and you had better admit it. (5)

There is a good deal of irony in Brecht’s choosing of Three Gods who finally

find shelter in the house of Shen Teh, a prostitute who is usually considered an

outcaste in all the cultures. It is one of the oldest institutions in the world. It involves

human degradation. As Russel rightly puts it: ‘A life against instinct’5.

A prostitute body is not only a site of violence but also a site for perpetrating

violence on her person, on her human dignity. But it is only in her the Gods have

found a good person. But Shen Teh denies saying : I am not good. I have been an

admission to make; when Wang asked me if I could shelter you I had hesitation (10)

But the First God rejects her opinion

Hesitation do not count if you overcome them..., There are many,

including even certain of us gods, who have begun to doubt
whether such a thing as a good person still exists. To check up
was the main object of our journey. We are now happy to
continue it. (10)
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His refusal to accept Shen Teh’s low estimate of herself seems to be less a

divine charity than an expedience. If they can claim that Shen Teh is a good person

they have been seeking for, they have an excuse for giving up their tiresome

wanderings and resuming comfortable life proper to the Gods.

The Gods hold the idealistic view of the concept of goodness. But, Shen Teh

contradicts this view when she sys:

1 am no means sure that 1 am good. I should certainly like to be,

but how am 1 to pay the rent; Let me admit. 1 sell myself in order
to live and even so 1 cannot manage, for there are so many forced
to do this.... Of course I should like to obey the commandments;
to honour my parents and respect the truth... Nor do I wish to
exploit other men to rob the defenceless. But how can it be done
even by breaking one or two of the commandments I can barely
manage. (10)

Brecht demonstrates the Marxian principle of economic laws which finally

govern the human relationship in the society. When the First God asks Shen Teh to be

good she replies : “But I am not certain of myself, Illustrious ones, How can I be good

when every thing is so expensive” (11)

In the play ‘The Three Penny Opera’ the lines uttered by Macheath bear

resemblance to Shen Teh’s words, when he says ‘Morality, in short can function

smoothly only on a well-fed stomach.

The Second God confesses that the Gods above are powerless as far as the

economic problems of people are concerned. He says: Alas, that is beyond our power,

we can not meddle in the sphere of economic. (11)

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However, they say that they can pay for the lodging. But again there is a

contradiction among themselves, with regard their help to Shen Teh. Finally, they

decide to help her, by giving some money as a rent for the lodging. But at the same

time not to be revealed it to any one because ‘it might be misinterpreted’ (11)

Brecht satirises the Gods when one of the God says that Shen Teh should not

tell others that the Gods had paid her. They fear that even though, they helped Shen

Teh with good intentions, people are circumspect about the whole matter. They might

discover a new relationship between the Gods and Shen Teh. Because Shen Teh is a

prostitute and the Gods with so called virtuous character, should not enter the house of

Shen Teh. In the capitalist society, the status of men or women decides their social

relationships. The Gods are very particular that no one should know that they have

paid her, because no one pays a prostitute without any gain. So even the Gods can not

avoid the stigma of meeting a prostitute. Brecht ridicules the Gods and suggests that

how mundane they are.

Shen Teh purchases a tobacco shop with the money given by the Gods from

Mrs. Shin, who continues to hang about the shop expecting her to give her handouts of

rice and cash. The good natured Shen Teh finds it impossible to refuse Mrs. Shin’s

demands. The husband and wife and their nephew soon arrive asking Shen Teh for

shelter. They remind her that they took her when she needed help. Actually, they

exploited and made her do lot of work in the tobacco shop which they owned earlier.

Shen Teh says

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They have no shelter

They have no friends
They need some one
How can they be refused ? (13)

An unemployed man comes to Shen Teh’s shop and asks for a handout of

cigarettes. At this point Mrs. Shin and others warn Shen Teh that she must not allow

herself to be taken advantage of. If she finds it difficult to refuse those who ask for

charity, the husband advises that she should pretend that the shop belongs to relative

who refuses to let her give anything away : The Man: Say it isn’t yours. Say it belongs

to relation and he insists on strict accounts. Why not try it ? (14) These lines are

ironical because later circumstances forces her to disguise herself as Shui Ta, in order

to save herself from bankruptcy.

A carpenter arrives to demand payment for the shelves he had already installed.

There is a parade of new arrivals to Shen Teh’s shop. Again the man and the woman

makes reference to Shen Teh’s cousin, forcing Shen Teh to invent a cousin. Finally

Shen Teh agrees to say that she has a cousin, when Mrs. Mitzu demands a reference

from Shen Teh, Shen Teh refers Mrs. Mitzu to her prosperous cousin, Shui Ta, who

lives in Shung. This satisfies Mrs. Mitzu for the time being. Eventually the husband,

wife, nephew, brother and sister-in-law are joined by the rest of the family bringing the

total to eight. They help themselves to Shen Teh’s cigarettes and wine. The family of

eight takes advantage of Shen Teh’s goodness. Shen Teh would like to give all her

possessions away to make every one happy since her nature thrives on giving. Her

relatives are liars, thieves and parasites, representing lumpen elements in the society.
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At the beginning of the play, Shen Teh is at the lower rung of the socio­

economic order. Her body itself has been treated as commodity by the society. She has

no distinct, recognisable and respectable place in the society. The moment she gets

some wealth, many people surround her forgetting her past life. Because of her

financial growth she has been elevated to the upper rung of the society. This clearly

illustrates the dialectics of the capitalist society.

The Wang, water seller is given the responsibility by the Gods to keep a watch

on the fortunes of Shen Teh. Shen Teh’s excessive generosity got her into financial

doldrums. This forces her to invent a cousin and disguise herself as a man, Shui Ta.

Walter Weideli rightly observes:

Szechwan symbolises a place, where man is exploited by other

man, Famine is so great that man is reduced to suicide or murder.
In brief, to help the others Shen Teh must destroy herself. She
must become hard and invent a cousin, Shui Ta, a cold calculating
man whom she is to defend against her own kindness.6

The moment Shen Teh disguises herself as Shui Ta, she is compelled to be

calculating, mean and profit-minded, in order to save Shen Teh’s property. This has a

striking resemblance to R.L; Stevenson’s character in Dr. Jekyll who turns into the

monstrous Mr. Hyde. As John Grasner observes :

..... There is a sort of sophrosyn in the demonstration of how

goodness must be practical and strong but not so practical and
strong as to take advantage of human helplessness and play as a
dictator. The Sophoryn at the core of this presentation of the
problem of good and evil in social action determines the style and
tone of the work.7
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Shen Teh argues with the carpenter over his bill for the shelves and by driving

harder bargain than the meek Shen Teh could have done, forces the carpenter to accept

for less than his original demands. Shui Ta’s final settlement is unreasonable meager.

She says : The unfortunate fact is that the poverty in this city is too much for any

individual to correct. Alas nothing has changed since a poet wrote. (25)

Shui Ta is well aware of the fact the alleviation of the poor is not to be

embarked upon by a single individual. Generosity by an individual cannot bring about

any changes in the conditions of the poor. The problem does not lie in the compassion

to be shown but in the political will of the ruling classes. Brecht may be suggesting

that reforming the society will not yield any result.

Shui Ta orders the family of eight to leave the shop. When they ignore his

orders, he summons a policeman. The policeman clearly states that as to why he has

come to the rescue of Shui Ta He says : Speaking for authorities we soon find out who

can rely on as a friend of law and order. (29)

Through the character of policeman, Brecht draws our attention to the nexus

between the state, the police and the business men. The police is employed by the

state to maintain law order. The state time and again claims that all are equal before

law. But in a class society this not the fact. The law is always there to safeguard the

rich only. So when Shen Teh was a prostitute, it is the police who harassed her. But
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when Shen Teh becomes a business woman and disguises herself as Shui Ta, the police

man claims that business people are the friends of law and order.

Shui Ta succeeds in driving away the family of eight from the house with the

help policeman. As Alisa Solomon observes :

The central contradiction in the play is that one cannot be good

without having means and acquiring means prevents one from
being good.8

Shen Teh is now learning the art of survival. The human comedy is that one

must be cruel to be kind. They are two sides of the same coin. The goodness and the

badness are represented in the same character. The individual experience is

generalised by Brecht. She Teh’s goodness is praised by the Gods and the people of

Szechwan. She has been praised by many as the ‘Angel of the slums’. But the

goodness or badness can be realised by the action of an individual. So, Shen Teh must

be calculative in order to be charitable. She ceases to be good, if she does not help any

one. As Elizabeth Wright points out:

Shui Ta’s position enables her to enter in to the laws of capitalist

exchange as a business woman. She can only make a profit if she
takes and gives nothing away. Hence there is a need for a bad
cousin, who takes care of the trade, while she as a good person
keeps away from buying and selling. Thus Brecht is able to show
the real split of the bourgeois is individual into private moral self
and public self.9

The human comedy of love is presented in the play through the relationship

between Shen Teh and Yang Sun. Yang Sun, an unemployed pilot, is saved by Shen
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Teh, when he is about to commit suicide. As a Marxist, Brecht he is optismistic about

the future society, when Shen Teh says : “to give up hope is to give up kindness.” (35)

In spite of the difficulties to be faced men in the world, still there are people who can

bring about hope to others. Shen Teh says :

There are still friendly people, for all over wretchedness. When 1
was little once, 1 was carrying a bundle of sticks and fell. An old
man helped me up and even gave me a penny. I have often
thought of it. Those who have least to eat give most gladly. I
suppose people just like showing what they are good at; and how
can they do it better then by being friendly. . Crossness is just a
way of being inefficient. Whenever some one is singing a song or
building a machine or planting rice it is really friendliness. You
are friendly too. (36)

Brecht is proposing that being friendly can reduce the misery in the world. But

a true friendship cannot be established between the rich and the poor. Brecht is hoping

that the proletariat can build a new world of friendliness by their productivity. People

from the proletariat section are always eager to help others even though they have less

means to meet with. This is because, they work with unselfish minds and not with the

intention of amassing wealth unlike the rich.

Shen Teh falls in love with Yang Sun. She buys a glass of water, despite the

fact that it is raining. She does this to show her love towards Sun. The water she

purchases is more precious than the water that falls from the sky. She sings a song :

I need your water, Wang

The water you have carried a long time
The water which tires you out
I am giving out to this gentleman
Is hardier than other man,
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In the society of clouds,

Braving the storms,
He crosses the sky, carrying
Friendly letters,
To far away friends. (38)

The song of the water seller in the rain clearly shows how men are alienated

from the nature. But in the capitalist society, natural resources like water and air will

be converted into commodities. Brecht wants to emphasise the fact that in the

capitalist system men will be alienated from the nature. As Walter Weideli observes :

The selling of water gives a meaning to their work, finds an

economy of love, and clarifies the profound ramifications of
commerce and exchange. For he who loves a glass of water and
an aviator’s record is more than the just the record. Our acts are
justified only if they found human exchange, an exchange that
system disparages, obstructs and alienate.10

Wang, the water seller, is not a good person by the standards of the Gods, who

discover a false bottom in his water mug. But, he is given responsibility by the Gods

to keep watch on the fortunes of Shen Teh. Wang is an instinctive moralist of natural

goodness. Wang says : “Do not too hard on us. O Illustrious Ones! Do not ask for

everything at once.” (40)

The contradiction between the world of Gods and world of humans is once

again exposed by Brecht when they meet Wang to inquire about Shen Teh's progress.

Wang reports that the carpenter talked ill of Shen The. The Gods support Shen Teh.

The Second God says : One can not afford the appearance to irregularity. The letter of

the law has first to be fulfilled; that is spirit. (40) These lines clearly explains that the
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Gods have totally failed to understand the purpose of the law in the human society and

their words indicate how the bourgeois will exploit the poor in the name of Law.

Shen Teh's love towards Sun is genuine and is unclouded by materialistic

interests. For the first time in her life, she experiences love towards a man. Earlier her

relationship with men is only a passion of lust. She expresses her love towards Sun in

a more poetic manner. As she enters the city before the dawn she says:

‘With each step, I was becoming more joyous. 1 saw the paper
boys and the men watering down the streets and the ox-drawn
carts loaded with vegetable. People have always told me that
when you are in love walk in the clouds, but what is really
beautiful is to walk on the ground, on the asphalt. I tell you, you
may miss many things if you are not in love. (42)

Shu Fu, a wealthy barber, seeing Shen Teh in the rosy splendour of the

morning falls in love with her. As Alisa Solomon observes :

‘Shen Teh met Yang Sun while on her way to tete-a-tete with a
marriage prospect, one who could cough up the rent money. Here
and in the latter negotiations with Shu Fu, marriage is compared to
the whoring. Shen Te thought she could leave behind becoming a
business woman or business man. Indeed, as Shui Ta, Shen Te
serves her own pimp, becoming as Brecht notes put it; ‘both goods
and sales person’.11

Shu Fu, the barber, whose shop is next to Shen Teh, smashes the hand of

Wang, the water seller. Wang to his dismay realises that none of the witnesses are

prepared to testify against Shu Fu. Brecht through this incident calls our attention to

the fact that capitalism divides the society into so many fragments. This division of

society into so many fragments, alienates one group of individuals from another
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group of individuals. This results in disunity among the individuals in the society and

in the process individuals become insensitive to human suffering. This is the human

comedy of capitalist society. Wang finds out that helplessness is capitalist society is

natural. John Needle and Peter Thomson rightly observes :

‘This is one of the incidents in which the whole action of the play
is embedded. The Gods are by instinct are conservative but they
have the kind of commitment to ethics that keeps every
conservative government in touch with middle classes. Unless
they can find a good person, they will have to change the world.
They will have to that is to say, to recognise that goodness is
overwhelmed in the prevailing conditions of the society. Their
discovery of Shen Teh prevents a world revolution society. Shen
Teh discovers on the contrary, that goodness is the very thing that
demands world revolution. Her compassion for the common man
is not shared by the common man. If it were (or when it is) the
world must be changed.12

Shen Teh wants to commit perjury to give Wang his compensation. Shen Teh

is aware of the fact that she was not present when the incident took place. She is

outraged by the injustice done to Wang and she exclaims with horror how people in

this world are indifferent. She says : ‘What a city is this! What sort of man! .... your

brother is outraged before you, and you shut your eyes... When an injustice is done in

a city, there must be an uproar. It is better the city perish in flames, before night fall

(45)

The police man once again shows his allegiance to the rich, when Wang

demands compensation from Shu Fu. Shui Ta says that Shen Teh can not testify

against Shu Fu. The Police man warns Wang for his complaining against respectable

person like Shu Fu. The Police man says :

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‘Yes tried your game on the wrong man, on a proper gentle man
that is you be a bit more careful with your complaints next time,
fellow. If Mr. Shu Fu does not choose to waive his legal rights.
You can still land in the cell for defamation. Get moving ! 56

Shen Teh carrying the mask of Shui Ta, sings a song of ‘The Defencelessness

of the Good and the Gods. When Shen Teh is singing the song, she puts on the mask of

Shui Ta. The moment she puts on the mask of Shui Ta, her attitude also undergoes a

change. Thus, the transformation from Shen to Shui Ta brings out the Marxist

principle that social being determines the thought and the character is a product of

social forces. She sings :

‘In order to win one’s mid-day meal

One needs the toughness which else where builds empires
Except twelve others be trampled down
The unfortunate can not be helped (48)

She laments that the Good and the Gods are powerless. It is very difficult for

any one to be good, when the whole world is wicked. In the world of inequality, the

divine commandments will not be of much use against hunger. She questions that

when people are hungry, how can they even think. She wants that the Gods should

come down and distribute the wealth equally among the people. It is impossible to

help one person without hurting a dozen others at the same time. She sings:

Alisa Solomon rightly observes :

‘The implication of the song is that, people have to accomplish

what all powerful Gods are incapable of. That, in a way is what
Shen Te tries to do by taking on the guise of Shui Ta (It is also
good people who lack weapons) His mask and costume they are
her armour, his manner, his ruthlessness of all empire builder her
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weapon.....thus, at the very moment when the plot promises the

transformation as the solution to the Shen Te’s predictment, the
song declare that it will not work. It requires a more fundamental
change than acting can accomplish.13

Shen Teh’s belief in the people, brings her comfort, when she is in troubles.

When she has been thinking how to pay for the rent, without her expectation an old

couple voluntarily pays her 200 silver dollars to tide over the difficulties. But since

her character thrives in giving, she immediately accepts to pay to Mrs. Yang, the

Mother of Mr. Sun, to help Sun to get a pilot job. She tells Mrs. Yang : “For the man

without hope shall fly Mrs. Yang one of us at least shall be able to fly above all thus

wretchedness : one at least shall rise above in all.” (47)

Sun, the unemployed pilot, loves Shen Teh only for the sake of money which

he wants to get a pilot job in Peking. The director of the firm in Peking tells him that

he would get a job, if Sun gives him five hundred dollars. He will be employed by a

swindler who hires out to the highest bidder. He is caught in a set of contradictions.

He can only give himself upto love if he gives up his job. In spite of the fact that Sun

loves her money, Shen Teh still love him. She sings :

T would go with the man whom I love

I would not reckon what is cost me
I would not consider what is wiser
I would not know whether he loves me
I would go with the man whom I love (59)

Shen Teh still believes that Sun is not wicked. She is still hopeful that she can

convince him, when she decides to help the old people who had helped her already
when she was in doldrums, Shen Teh dreams about marrying Sun which she could not

think of when she was prostitute Walter H. Sokel observes.

‘As Shui Ta she knows the worthlessness of her charming but

rascally lover Sun. But with her emotional feminine self, as Shen
Te, she can not give up the physical passion and tenderness that
bind her to him. In Shen Te love is the desire for self fulfillment
and the need for self preservation clash in hopeless combat that
never be decided. 14

In a patriarchal society love is always is in terms of passion, but not in terms of

a sincere emotion. When Shui Ta affirms that Shen Teh is of independent thinking and

can distinguish between real love and false love. Sun dismisses his contention and

says that women will be always overtaken by the so called love of a man. He says :

‘It astounds me what people imagine about their female relation

and the effect of sensible argument. Have not they ever told you
about the power of love, the twitching of the flesh? You want to
appeal to her reason? She has not any reason! All she has had is a
life time of ill treatment, poor thing! If I put my hand on her
shoulder and say ‘you’ are coming with me, she will hear bells and
not recognise her own mother (55)

In the capitalist society real love between man and woman is not possible. The

system also has the capacity to transform the feelings like love into a commodity. It

transforms everything into commodity. As Wang says ‘ The least good is most

fortunate’. (90) Every object is viewed from the utilitarian point of view. The play in

the beginning is conceived as a sketch titled Commodity/True love. Shen Teh as a

prostitute was blind to the emotion of love, feeling of love because, the relationship

between her and customers, has an exchange value. The capitalist system reduces
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everything including human relationships to a commodity value. The system survives

because of inherent contradictions. Women are treated as sexual objects. As Walter

Weideli says:

‘Love destroys the one who loves and yet it is the only chance for
freedom. Just the meeting of the two solitudes and two miserable
makes the world begin to brighten. During this moment of grace
all barriers that men set up against and between each other already
seen less absolute and necessary. 15

Shen Teh is not able to resist Sun and they want to marry. But the marriage

between the two does not take place. Sun tells that marriage will not take place till

Shui Ta arrives. Shen Teh knows that Shui Ta can not make his presence on the scene.

In the words of Alisa Solomon : “‘Shui Ta will never, can never, come at least not until

a vexing contradiction can be resolved.”16

Shen Teh realises that Yang Sun will prevent her paying her debts in order to

satisfy his ambitions with her money. Elizabeth Wright observes

‘Shen Te is finally saved from marriage, which would have

deprived her of both her money and her man. This epitomises
bourgeois marriage, in which the individual believes he/she can
maintain his or her freedom playing the humanist in private while
living in inhuman society in public. 17

When Shen Teh sees the carpenter’s child, who is abandoned by the carpenter

trying to eat something from fishing out of dust bin. She lifts the child and expresses

horror at the fate of the poor children. She also realises that she is pregnant now. She

proclaims:
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‘ 0 son, 0 Airman! What sort of a world

Awaits you? Will you too
Be left in fish in the garbage.....
For yourselves, you unfortunate? Henceforth 1
I shall fight at least for my own, If I have to be
Sharp as a tiger ...
Till I have at least saved my son, if only him
What I leant from my schooling, the gutter
By violence and trickery now
Shall I serve you my son; to you
I would be kind; a tiger, a savage beast
To all others if need be (77)

These lines reveal that Shen Teh’s pregnancy is teaching her lessons learnt

from Shui Ta’s experience. In a cruel and selfish world one must be cruel and selfish

to protect oneself and those are the laws. Keith A Dickson Observes :

‘As soon as she becomes pregnant her mother instinct, like that of
mother courage prompts her to obey the laws of the jungle. 18

In the beginning Shen Teh’s disguise as Shui Ta is for shorter period. As the

play progresses, the impersonation of Shen Teh as Shui Ta dominates the proceedings

in the play. Shen Teh’s pregnancy forces her to transform herself into Shui Ta. Her

dual personality serves to exertnalise an inner conflict between the altruistic moral self

and the competitive business self which is the inherent quality of the capitalism. Her

yard is again filled with people. As Shui Ta, she refuses to take care of the carpenter’s

children. Instead offers a job to the Carpenter.

Shui Ta starts a factory with stolen tobacco brought by the members of the

family of eight. Shui Ta becomes increasingly aggressive. This has become

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inevitable because Shen Teh’s difficulties become more acute and she should make a

provision for the child. As Elizabeth Wright observes :

‘The maintaining of the good half involves allowing the bad half
to come more and more to the fore, showing that giving is only
possible when profit has been achieved. The good half is affected
by this, because the bad half is out to separate her from those she
wants to help. .. The good person is isolated through the acts of
the bad ones. Shen The goodness become purely private as far
example her love for unborn child. The bad Shui Ta become more
and more public effacing good Shen The. 19

When the Gods visit Wang, they are unhappy about the wickedness of the

people. Wang asks them to relax their rules of judging the people Wang says : “For

instance, that only good will should be required instead of love, or fairness instead of

justice. Then plain decency instead of honour,” (82)

The ideals of the Gods are more utopian than human. They refuse to alter

them. Ronald Gray Observes :

‘The almost unattainable absolutes should be replaced by more

human qualities. Indeed, there is a sense in which the play sets
out to show that it is precisely Shen Te’s devotion to an impossible
ideal which transforms her into her ruthless counterpart.20

Sun joins the factory run by Shui Ta, as a foreman. Shui Ta soon becomes a

Tobacco king, a successful capitalist paying starvation wages and over crowding the

living quarters of his workers. Beginning at the bottom, Sun works his way up in Shui

Ta’ factory until he is a manager. Shui Ta transforms him into a model citizen. There
 155

is a lot of irony in Mrs. Yang words, in appreciating Shui Ta’ harshness which made

Sun a respectable person. She says :

\... Today Sun is a different person from what he was three

months ago. I think you will admit it. The noble soul is like a bell
strike it and it rings, strikes it not and rings not; as forebears used
to say. (88)

The ruthlessness of the capitalist is not implemented with the help of muscle,

but with the help of brains. It means exploitation is done very so cleverly that the

exploited accept the exploitation without any protest. So, in the capitalist system the

exploiter requires a fair amount of ‘education’ to exploit the masses. Sun says :

‘I might point out that I have also got a fair education you know.
The overseer has the right ideals about the man, but being
uneducated he can not see what is good for the firm. Give me a
week’s trial, Mr. Shui Ta, and I think I can prove to you that my
brains are worth more to the firm than the mere strength of my
muscles. (90)

The irony in the above lines is that even education in the capitalist system

teaches how to exploit the people. The education teaches the ‘desirable qualities’ like

ruthlessness, harshness, the language’, so that one can become successful capitalist.

In capitalism ruthlessness becomes a desirable quality. The isolation of

goodness in Shen The is thus shown to facilitate the rise of bourgeois. Shui Ta is at

an advantageous position by exploiting the poor. The answer to the question of the

Gods as to what has business to do with righteousness and worthy life, is that such a
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life in the present world is only available if one has good business. In the capitalism

business thrives on the principle of exploitation. Alisa Solomon rightly observes:

‘The central transformation of Shen Te into Shui Ta provides a

standard against which other transformations can be regarded of
the exploiting into exploited, of the tobacco shop into a factory, of
unemployed flier into unrelenting foreman that is, labour into
management of the gods into judges. By making the art of theatre
viewing strange, Brecht subjects all the transformation in the story
to a parallel interrogation. Do they have to happen? In that way?
How do I as a spectator taking part through a kind of imaginative
complicity enable these events to take place.21

In the final scene of the play Shui Ta is brought before a court of justice for the

alleged murder of his cousin Shen The.. In the trial scene Shui Ta’s character is

praised by the policeman, Shu Fu, and Mrs. Mitzu, who represent wealthy and

authority in the society. On the contrary he is criticised by the carpenter and others,

who are exploited by Shui Ta

Three Gods act as Shui Ta’s judges. Shen Teh recognises them. Asking for the

court room to be cleared, she removes her mask and confesses her acts. She defends

he action and says:

‘Yes it is me Shui Ta and Shen The, I am

both of them
Your original order
to be good while yet surviving
Split me like lightening into two people I
cannot tell what occurred; goodness to others
And to myself could not both be achieved
To serve both self and others. I found too hard
Oh, your world is arduous! Such need, such despair
The hand which is held out to the starving
Is quickly wrenched off! He who gives help to the
lost, is lost for his our own part. (105)
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The Gods are not angry. On the other hand, they are glad to find their good

human being again. They say that the acts of Shen Teh are not all wicked. Brecht

exposes contradiction among the Gods, The contradiction is between the Fist God and

the Second God, The second God seems to have understood the real problem of Shen

Teh when he says : ‘But how is she to go on living ?’(106) But the First God is not

prepared to admit the truth and says that the world can not be changed and the status

quo should be maintained :

Are we to admit that our commandments are fatal? Are we to

sacrifice them? Never! Is the world to be altered? How? By
whom? No everything is as it should be (107)

The decision of the God solves nothing. It is ironical that the omnipotent Gods

fail miserably in giving solution to Shen Teh’s problem. Their ideals of goodness can

not be implemented in the human world. The contradictions in the human society can

be solved only within the human society. The Gods are absurd in their ineptitude and

in their obstinate refusal to recognise the realities of the world in which men must live.

They have no real vision for the human society. As Walter H. Sokel rightly points

out:

‘The Gods have only two answers to this dilemma neither of

which is a true answer, the moral imperative be good which is
empty of content since it fails to take notion of all important
questions of how the command is to be implemented; and the rosy
clouds on which, in the end, they escape from the mutual view,
while down on earth, distraught Shen Te lifts her arms
despairingly after them.21.
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Shen Teh is desperate. She is now worried about how she should go on living

and what will happen to her baby. When she protests that she can not survive without

Shui Ta, the Gods say that it may be permissible to use Shui Ta occasionally, once a

month. They once again ask her to be good and all will be well leaving troubled Shen

Teh alone, they ascend heavens on a pink cloud. Walter H. Sokel rightly points out:

‘Shen Te does not succeed in the fradulant idealism of Gods. In

her final despairing gesture she represents humanity in tragic
greatness. Kindness in Shen Te is frustration of the wish to be
truly human. Man’s natural wish for goodness clashes with
circumstances.23

So when the Gods fail to give a solution to Shen Teh’s problem, Brecht

represents the problem to the audience. At the end of the play in the Epilogue, an actor

comes forward with the question.

‘But what would you suggest?

What is your answer; nothing has been arranged
Should men be better? Should the world be changed?
Or just the Gods? Or ought there to be none?
We for our part feel well and truly done
There is only one solution that we know
That you should consider as you go
What sort of measures you recommend
To help good people to a happy end
Ladies and gentlemen, in you we trust:
There must be happy endings, must, must, must (109)

The last line, nevertheless, shows Brecht’s strong urge to solve the dilemma

which splits man and divides human society. Brecht does not offer any solution to the

‘human comedy’ of how a good person can survive in a bad society. He does not

impose any decision on the audience. He makes the audience to think critically about
 159

this problem. He implicitly suggests the need to change the society. Alisa Solomon

observes:

‘ The play offers most profound lesson that the moral to which it is
usually reduced - in John Willets words ‘In a competitive society
goodness is often suicidal. Beyond that Good person teaches the
spectator what kind of engagement is required for considering this
simple sounding dilemma. It demands nothing less than a new
way of perceiving.’24

In a class ridden society, the values, ethics and terms for human relationships

are determined by the dominant class. How bourgeois society splits the individual into

public and private is also demonstrated by Brecht in his song ballet ‘ The Seven

Deadly Sins’. This is a story of two sisters, Anna I and Anna II. The two sisters on a

tour are on at our to raise money for a home for themselves and their family. Anna I

has beauty and talent, and merchandise which she has to sell. Her alter ego in the form

of her sister, Anna II warns her at every step not to give way natural desire for

happiness and thus commits one of seven deadly sins

The Seven Deadly Sins are pride, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, avarice and sloth.

Brecht declares that these sins as virtues. They are sins only to the petty bourgeois

because under capitalist conditions he cannot afford to live a natural human life. Anna

I criticises her sister’s failure to meet the desire of the capitalist. There is a division

between those who toil to produce and those who consume them. The audience is

invited to acknowledge this split. The ballet is in the nature of parable. It comments

that in a society of exploitation, it is impossible to be good.

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Brecht wants to show through this play that Shen Te’s dilemma cannot be

solved individually. Raymond Williams says that the play raises questions like ‘ Is not

sin against life to allow one self to be destroyed by cruelty, indifference and greed’ 25

The solution for human comedy of deciding what is good and what is bad lies

in the collective. As for Brecht, he is more concerned with good world rather than

with a good person. He sees ‘good’ and ‘bad’ not in terms of morality but in terms of

its effects on the society.

Brecht presents the human comedy of Shen Teh's dilemma with an open

ending. He does not offer any solution to his dilemma as he is believed in

demonstrating the puzzles of the world but not in solving it. He wants the spectators

should try to solve the puzzles.

As far as the technique of the play is concerned, Brecht makes use of Dialectics

as the principal tool of the epic narration in this play. The play is full of

contradictions. The main contradiction in the play is between the Gods and Shen Teh.

Throughout the play, Brecht exposes the contradiction between ideal world of Gods

and the capitalist world in which Shen Teh’s lives. Finally the contradiction is left

unanswered and Brecht poses the question to the audience.

There is another contradiction between Shun Teh and Shui Ta, between

woman’s world and man’s world. The techniques he makes use of this play is

‘disguise’ as a tool to estrange the audience. Audiences are aware of the fact that it is

Shun Teh disguises who is playing the role of Shui Ta. Shen Teh disguises herself as a
 161

Shui Ta in front of the audience. This technique leads the audience to question.

Whether is it possible anyone remains to be good in the capitalist society? As

Raymond William says ‘Complex seeing’, he does through the dialectical relationship

between Shen Teh and Shui Ta. Shen Teh can not survive without Shui Ta.

The play is a parable. Because he himself said, parable is ‘far more artful’

than other forms. It allows him to subject the audience to pleasurable critique, by

making use of epic elements in the theatre. He can make familiar strange for example

the transformation Shen Teh, a prostitute, to a position of exploited Shui Ta is the best

example. Another example is Shen Teh loving ‘Sun’, in spite of the fact that Sun is not

faithful to her. Shen Teh’s character is believable but Shui Ta’s character is

unbelievable. The empathy shown by the audience towards Shen Teh, is balanced by

the tough mindedness of Shui Ta. The play demonstrate transformation in the

characters, i.e., exploiting into the exploited, of the tobacco shop into the factory, of

the unemployed flier into unrelenting foreman, the Gods into judges. But, is by

dialectical relationship between Shen Teh and Shui Ta, and the relationship with others

make the audience critical. The play’s emotional scenes are pricked by many songs

which make the audience alienated from the characters The scenes are episodic in

nature. The play ends with an appeal to the audience, to find an answer to the dilemma

of Shen Teh in the play.

 162

REFERENCES

1. Bertolt Brecht Collected poem ed. John Willet and Ralph Manhesm
(London :Eyre Methuen, 1976) 235.

2. Ibid., 275

3. Ibid., 280

4. Bertolt Brecht, ‘The Good Person of Szechwan’ translated by John Willet

(London : Eyre Methuen, 1980). All further references to the play are to
this edition and the page numbers are given parenthetically at the end of
the quotation.

5. Bertrand Russel,‘Marriage and Morals’ (London Roultedge, 1959. 107.

6. Walter Weideli Art of Bertolt Brecht (Tr) by Daniel Russel. (New York :
New York University Press, 1963) 91.

7. John Grassner ‘Drama and Detachment’. A view of Brecht’s style of

theatre. The theatre in our times. A summary of the Men, Materials and
movements in ‘Modern Theatre’ (New York Crown Publishers INC,
1954)83.

8. Alisa Solomon. The Good Person of Szechwan, Making Gernder

Strange. Theatre journal Vol. 25. No. 2(1994) 11.

9. Elizabeth Wright. Post Modem Brecht : A Re-presentation (London :

Routledge, 1989)41.

10. Walter WeideliArt of Bertolt Brecht (Tr) by Daniel Russel. 92

11 Alisa Solomon. The Good Person of Szechwan, Making Gernder

Strange. Theatre journal Vol. 25. No. 2(1994) 12.

12. John Needle and Peter Thomson Brecht ‘In Search of a Theatre’ (Basil
Black Well: Oxford University Press, 1981) 185.

13 Alisa Solomon. The Good Person of Szechwan, Making Gernder

Strange. Theatre journal Vol. 25. No. 2 (1994) 14.
 163

14. Walter H Sokel Brecht’s split characters and his sense of tragic in 20th
century views on Brecht ed by Peter Demetz (Engle Wood Cliff NJ
Prentice Hall, 1962) 130.

15. Walter Weideli. Art of Bertolt Brecht (Tr) by Daniel Russel. 92.

16. Alisa Solomon, ‘The Good Person of Szechwan Making Gender Strange’
Theatre Journal Vol. 25 No. 2 (94) 15.

17. Elizabeth Wright, Post Modem Brecht: A Re-presentation 41

18. Keith A. Dickson Towards Utopia : A study of Brecht (Oxford :

Clarendon Press, 1978) 141

19. Elizabeth Wright, Post Modem Brecht: A Re-presentation 42

20. Ronald Gray, Brecht: The Dramatist (Cambridge : Cambridge University

Press, 1976) 145.

21. Alisa Solomon. ‘The Good Person of Szechwan, Making Gemder

Strange’. Theatre journal Vol. 25. No. 2(1994) 17.

22. Walter H. Sokel. Brecht’s split characters and his sense of tragic in 20th
Century of Views on Brecht ed by Peter Demetz 130.

23. Ibid., 130

24. Alisa Solomon. The Good Person of Szechwan, Making Gernder

Strange. Theatre journal Vol. 25. No. 2(1994) 19.

25. Raymond Williams, ‘Modem Tragedy’ (London : Hogarth Press, 1992)

200.